The invention relates to a container carrier made of cardboard or a different foldable flat material for wrapping around a group of bottles or other containers. A bottle carrier of the type mentioned in the introduction is disclosed in EP 0 630 826 A1, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference. Said bottle carrier comprises a one-piece blank of foldable flat material such as cardboard placed around a group of bottles in the manner of a sleeve. The blank has a bottom wall, side walls articulated to the longitudinal sides of the bottom wall and a fitted-together top wall made up of internal and external top wall portions articulated to the upper longitudinal sides of the side walls and glued together in an overlapping region. The front walls are formed from front wall tabs articulated to the transverse sides of the bottom wall, side walls and top wall, pivoted therebetween into the openings and glued together in overlapping regions. The top wall has two handle openings spaced apart from one another in the transverse direction. The overlapping region of the outer and inner top wall portion forms between the handle openings a grip portion for gripping through the handle openings. The grip portion is configured to be triple-ply by a grip reinforcement tab, which is folded against the inner face of the inner top wall portion. The bottom wall front tabs are connected via corner connecting tabs to side wall front tabs, which are folded against the inner faces of the side walls. The top wall front tabs are extended over the entire transverse sides of the outer top wall portion which is congruent with the top wall and by means of connecting portions are connected to the outer faces of the bottom wall front tabs level with the body of the bottles.
When carrying this container carrier, large forces act on the grip portion, so that the top wall may be considerably deformed. Moreover, the connecting regions between the top wall, the side walls and the front walls may be deformed as a result of the high loads. In particular, unpleasant deformations may be present at the corners of the top wall. The highly asymmetrical weakness of the top wall contributes to this through the grip reinforcement tab.
EP 0 983 946 B1, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a container carrier with a blank made of cardboard or a different foldable flat material, which has a bottom wall, side walls and a top wall, which are articulated to one another on the longitudinal sides. A connection is present between one of these walls and an adjacent wall via an adhesive tab. Alternatively, portions which overlap one another of one of these walls are glued together. The front openings are entirely or partially closed by front walls, which are connected to the blank. Moreover, the container carrier has a further blank made of cardboard or a different foldable flat material, which may be arranged above the group of containers. This blank has a reinforcement wall arranged below the top wall and two further handle openings in the reinforcement wall spaced apart from one another and arranged below the handle openings of the top wall. The reinforcement wall is configured to be substantially congruent with the top wall. It has longitudinal tabs articulated to the longitudinal sides and is connected to the blank wrapped around the containers.
Said container carrier has the required strength in the grip region and has a reduced tendency to deformation in the region of the side walls, front walls and corners.
Proceeding therefrom, the object of the invention is to provide a container carrier of the aforementioned type, which further improves the strength in the grip region and the stability.